Yuri Milner eyes a Breakthrough age for science

Image source: Breakthrough Prize Russian billionaire, Yuri Milner, who has made big and sometimes audacious bets on tech companies like Facebook, Twitter, and Alibaba, and closer home on Flipkart and Ola, has been on a mission to make science mainstream.

Since 2012, he has fronted the annual Breakthrough Prize Ceremony, which is held in Silicon Valley, and is commonly referred to as the ‘Oscars of Science’.

Speaking exclusively to ET on the eve of the award show, Milner said, while it was encouraging to see an Indian school student from Bengaluru win the Junior Challenge this year, they had a lot of work to do to shore up awareness around science and the Breakthrough initiatives here in India.

Samay Godika, 16, who has bagged the fourth annual Breakthrough Junior Challenge will receive $400,000 in educational prize money for himself, his teacher as well as his school.

Currently studying at National Public School at Koramangala in Bengaluru, Godika’s video, submitted in the life sciences category, focused on circadian rhythms, the 24-hour biological processes that can affect simple daily experiences such as waking up for school or jet lag.

Godika said he would go on to research further on the correlation between circadian rhythms and the effectiveness of medical treatments as he prepares to go to college. While talking to ET he said he would like to pursue entrepreneurship going forward.

Rana Adhikara, an Indian American, was awarded the New Horizons Prize in physics, which goes to early career researchers. Rana, who is presently at the California Institute of Technology has received $100,000 for his research on present and future ground-based detectors of gravitational waves.

“We have close to 100 winners now and a majority of them are spending the prize money on non-profit initiatives. Some have set up separate foundations and raised money from other sponsors. Secondly, there is far more recognition among academic institutions about the prize. And we are seeing more people watching the ceremony through the live broadcast. Last year, for the first time we went live in China through our partner, Tencent, as we expand our geographic coverage,” said Milner, who founded the investment DST Global which backs hot internet companies globally.

The 56-year-old physicist-turned-internet investor, has also proffered $100 million for Breakthrough Starshot along with funding an ambitious $100-million science project to discover whether intelligent life exists outside planet earth through Breakthrough Listen.

Across the main Breakthrough Prizes, New Horizon and the Junior Challenge, 100 winners have taken home $220 million over the past seven years. The areas of research include life sciences, mathematics, and physics.

Milner told ET, in a telephonic interview from California, that with every Breakthrough Junior Challenge winner, the aim is to inspire more kids to take up science. “We are trying to send a message to children that you can be popular by what people want to see as role models. Earlier winners have become like celebrities and have been covered extensively by their local press. If you look at social media, be it Facebook, Twitter, or any other platform, among the top 100-200 most followed people you won’t find a single scientist. That is what we are trying to change,” he said.

One of the most celebrated Silicon Valley tech investors, Milner was named after the first man in outer space Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. He has rallied other tech entrepreneurs behind the Breakthrough projects to revive the interest in science and space exploration.